Donald Wink - US grants

9450684 Wink The faculty in the department of chemistry at Chicago State University (CSU), William Rainey Harper College (HC) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will join in a consortium to create, share, and evaluate curriculum changes in chemistry and related areas. Their efforts build upon networks already established for the purposes of curriculum reform. This new Consortium will create versatile, multi-faceted, and well-tested options for implementation at peer institutions. Each institution is responsible for the independent generation of one or more comprehensive curricula that will be implemented on their campus and later on the campus of one of the other Consortia members. CSU faculty will initially focus on a two-year combined physical sciences and mathematics program. HC faculty will initially focus on a two-year combined physical sciences and mathematics program. HC faculty will address both the general and organic sequences and non-major courses. UIC faculty will work on projects related to introductory chemistry, chemistry for engineers, and upper division courses. The personnel will also collaborate from the inception of the program on two inter-campus projects, The Data Project and The Chemistry Hook, designed to create a general set of materials to introduce research and life-related examples into chemistry courses. An annual symposium on science education issues will also be sponsored by the Consortium. ***y

9354526 Wink The chemistry and mathematics departments of the University of Illinois at Chicago propose to develop a common curriculum for preparatory instruction in general chemistry and intermediate algebra. The course, dubbed "The MATCH Program" to reflect its origins, will be offered to students who require preparatory courses in order to succeed in college, because of deficiencies in the their educational background or because they are returning to their higher education several years after graduation from high school. The impetus for the curriculum comes from a recognition that such students, who may be very important in the composition of the nation's technical personnel in the future, will likely do better if these courses are combined so that mathematics and chemistry instruction reinforce each other explicitly. The proposed work will be conducted over a three year period, with a planned transition from a small developmental program through to one that can be used at other institutions. Cooperative learning strategies and laboratory program will be key elements of the instructional effort. The development, evaluation, and implementation plans all include close consultation with faculty from other schools, who have either had experience with similar programs or who recognize a similar need for this program for their students. Finally, a careful and rigorously controlled assessment program will be included. ***

The University of Illinois at Chicago-Community College Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation is an initiative to significantly strengthen programs for the preparation of K-12 teachers who complete their preservice curriculum at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The Collaborative involves UIC and six community college partners that are major sources of transfer students for UIC-William Rainey Harper Community College, Oakton Community College, Olive-Harvey College, Triton College, Truman College, and Harold Washington College. The project also has strong connections with the Chicago Public Schools and surrounding Chicago-area school districts. The Collaborative emphasizes activities in seven categories: 1) faculty development; 2) mathematics and science course and curriculum development; 3) mentoring and induction for mathematics and science teachers in their initial years of teaching; 4) recruitment and retention of outstanding teacher candidates, with a special focus on high quality candidates from underrepresented groups; 5) stronger collaboration and articulation between UIC, community colleges, and schools; 6) institutionalization and dissemination of project activities and products; and 7) research and evaluation.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education program encompasses four different components built on existing innovative science and math instruction and teacher development programs at UIC. Thus, the program features the addition of Fellows to existing or emerging teacher development initiatives. Each cohort of Fellows is trained as they, K-12 teachers, and University faculty work together during summer workshops and academic year seminars and meetings. In the classroom, UIC GK-12 Fellows support teachers by a process of (a) documenting an understanding of the schools, classrooms, students, and teachers, (b) assisting teachers in developing and implementing activities in classrooms, and (c) assessing their impact. The four components are a high school Chemistry Van project that currently offers equipment but little teacher support beyond of a summer in-service program; a K-8 mathematics curriculum with laboratory options that can be further developed to utilize computer analysis of data; state-of-the-art virtual reality platforms in support of conceptual learning in elementary science; and a whole school development project built on a partnership between UIC and an urban high school. Themes of learning processes, materials development, and technology are all present. Program benefits include increased student conceptual learning, enhanced curricula for classroom use, and increased ability for teachers to teach science and mathematics using a broad base of activities. Evaluation focuses on portfolio development by each Fellow and a separate evaluator of the teacher-Fellow, student-Fellow interactions during the interventions and then the resulting changes in teacher-student interactions.

With this award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) Program, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois in Chicago will acquire an ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser system and a high power Nd:YAG laser. This equipment will enhance research in coherent control of chemical reactions, analytical probing of organic thin films, and nanolithography.


A femtosecond laser provides ultrafast pulses of coherent visible or infrared light, which enables researchers to obtain important information about fast occurring chemical reactions. Its use may enable breakthroughs in our understanding of the properties of reactive and nonreactive molecules.

Interdisciplinary (99) This is a 3-year curriculum adaptation and implementation project that focuses on a set of 4 new science courses (three 4-credit hour courses and a 1 credit-hour project-based capstone seminar) for elementary-education and non-science majors at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Chicago-area Community Colleges (CCs). The new courses are based on guiding principles, and incorporate elements, that derive from the rich literature on science teaching and learning and the overarching goals of national and local standards. These courses are resulting from collaborations between UIC and the CCs, among faculties in UIC's Colleges of Education and Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the CCs, among specialists in different sciences, and between K-12 teachers and college faculty. The courses are enhanced by adapting and implementing elements of the innovative set of courses developed by faculty at the University of Michigan at Dearborn. Three elements of the UMD program are being adapted: inquiry labs, assessment practices, and emphases in capstone course. The quality and impact of the project is being assessed by gathering and analyzing data on (1) faculty views on the adaptation and implementation of these courses, (2) fit between planned and enacted curriculum and pedagogy, and (3) student learning.

Title of Project: Scientists, Kids, and Teachers (SKIT): A GK-12 Partnership with the Chicago Public Schools
Institution: University of Illinois at Chicago
PI: Donald Wink. Co-PIs: Maria Varelas, Tom Moher, Stacy Wenzel, Jeff Lewis
Number of Fellows per year (graduate vs. undergraduate): 10 graduate, 1 undergraduate
School District Partner: Chicago Public Schools
Target audience of the project (K-12 grade-band): K-12
Setting: Urban
NSF supported disciplines involved: Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Previous Project: The SKIT project evolved out of our Track I project, UIC Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education (NSF DUE-9979537). The prior project was organized around four different interventions in schools in Chicago and two nearby suburbs. Findings show Fellows influenced K-12 education through multiple roles, including that of teacher, curriculum developer, professional developer, student mentor, educational researcher, university representative, and resource gatherer. Teachers reported Fellows helped them plan in advance for lessons and labs; offer one-to-one attention to more students; address topics in deeper and more engaging ways; and offer more hands-on experiences, along with alternative explanations. As Fellows contributed to changes in urban K-12 classrooms, they also gained valuable understandings about the complexities of teaching, learning, and assessing STEM knowledge in diverse settings.

Current Plans: The new SKIT project focuses on and supports the new (2003) Chicago Math and Science Initiative (CMSI) of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). CMSI includes focused staff development, instructional support for teachers through a cadre of mathematics and science support personnel, increase in instructional time, adoption of standards-based curricula, standardization of assessments, and capital improvements. SKIT Fellows work in three different areas within the CMSI structure: K-8 mathematics and K-8 science, for which CMSI has identified particular curricula that schools may implement; and high school science and mathematics, where Fellows work in department-wide projects and district-wide networks. All Fellows attend CPS professional development activities and assist classroom teachers and specialists in delivery of instruction, assessment of student work, design of classroom-based research, and enhancement and development of curriculum. At UIC, Fellows attend GK-12 summer workshops and academic-year courses to gain an understanding of teaching and learning in urban school settings and to share their CPS experiences.

The project's intellectual merit centers on facilitating change through Fellows' participation in several overlapping learning communities. The anticipated broader impact is to support and sustain reformed STEM education in the nation's third largest school system, and allow CPS to benefit much more directly from STEM expertise at UIC as UIC also learns from CPS. The project plan includes a phased transition from an NSF-supported program infrastructure to a sustainable UIC/CPS infrastructure over the course of the grant.

Project evaluation is organized around a set of 11 specific objectives addressing impact on Fellows, teachers, students, as well as institutional impact on UIC and CPS. Evaluation is based on a broad set of quantitative and qualitative data obtained through participant activity logs and journals, student performance in various assessments, questionnaires, and interviews. Evaluation guides ongoing program development and assess its effectiveness with respect to both particular project objectives and the transition to a self-sustaining program.

This project is partially supported by funds from the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

The award from the Chemistry Division supports the establishment of an Undergraduate Research Center (URC) as a collaborative effort involving Purdue University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Ball State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Olive Harvey College, Harold Washington College, Moraine Valley College, College of DuPage and Chicago State University. The PI is Gabriela Weaver with coPIs, Fred Lytle, Robert Morris, Pratibha Varma-Nelson and Donald Wink. This collaboration, called the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE), has as its main objective to create laboratory modules for first and second year chemistry courses that will provide students with learning experiences from 2-3 research based projects each semester. The projects will utilize advanced instrumentation and engage initially up to 500 students per semester in a process that parallels authentic research practice. The experiments will teach fundamental chemistry skills and concepts but will be interdisciplinary, involving authentic research projects developed by faculty in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, Food Science and Chemical Engineering. Teams of research faculty from Purdue and the other partner institutions working with faculty from community colleges and other primarily undergraduate institutions where these lab modules will be used will develop the research modules for these lab courses. The Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model will be incorporated into the laboratory program utilizing undergraduates who have recently completed the course to facilitate learning skills such as literature searches, approaches to analyze data, and presentation of findings in poster and oral formats. The center will establish an online instrumentation resource that will provide students with remote access to automated, research level instrumentation. This network of instruments will be available to students in all the Center institutions. Besides its use in the laboratory modules, it will help PUI faculty participants develop research projects so their own research capacity is enhanced and the students at these institutions can participate in research. This award will advance discovery through the chemical research that is conducted by the students while promoting their learning of chemistry. The CASPiE collaborative is intended to develop an educational model that will be engaging and welcoming for women and ethnic minorities who are underrepresented in science. Qualitative and quantitative tools will be employed to provide summative and formative evaluation of project goals. William Boone from Indiana University will direct the assessment. The Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, Directorate of Mathematics and Physical Sciences cofunds this award.

Chemistry (12)
The objective of this project is the construction of a well-grounded and systematic description of how students in general chemistry reason about solutions using qualitative and quantitative descriptions. The work focuses on in-depth studies of students' conceptions of chemical phenomena in solution (identity, concentration, and reactivity), how these are described using qualitative (submicroscopic, macroscopic, and symbolic) representations, and how quantification helps or hinders these conceptions and descriptions.
Intellectual Merit: Contemporary research on learning indicates that effective instruction needs to take into account the conceptions that students bring to learning tasks, especially when those conceptions diverge from, and potentially conflict with, conceptions accepted by the scientific community. When these conceptions are not taken into account, there are two typical results: fleeting, superficial learning or little learning at all. At the same time, there is clear evidence that college students have significant problems reasoning about chemical systems. Furthermore, they tend to treat calculations and numbers algorithmically rather than conceptually, thus turning mathematical procedures into blindly-applied algorithms. As a result, underlying concepts that ought to link multiple representations are frequently absent and students are less able to design and carry through on purposeful investigations using measurement. The project adapts the Facets
cluster approach that Minstrell (1992, 2001) developed in the context of basic physics concepts (e.g., forces and motion, acceleration, etc.) to map the space of students' conceptions related to the three chemical phenomena of solutions and the four different forms of representation through in-depth work with a small but diverse group of students. The research is being done in consultation with faculty who teach general chemistry in four college environments in the Chicago area, including three community colleges (Kennedy-King College, Harold Washington College, and Harper College). These institutions serve student populations that are traditionally underrepresented in the STEM disciplines. The in-depth studies lay the groundwork for the design of a computer-based assessment system that could be used to further define the conceptual space of student understanding in this domain as well as provide diagnostic information to instructors. This project is producing a prototype of such a system.
Broader Impacts: Facet clusters for chemical phenomena are expected to have significant impacts on the knowledge base required for implementing effective teaching, learning and assessment practices in undergraduate science with diverse student populations. The project is having its most significant initial impact in general chemistry, a key course for the success of students in many different STEM career tracks, including many outside the chemical sciences. Major initiatives in the reform of general chemistry course content have proceeded with relatively little specific data about student reasoning using numerical information. This project is providing additional insight into what students do when they encounter multiple representations including quantification. Beyond general chemistry the work also is expected to impact other teaching and learning environments where students must work with qualitative and quantitative descriptions, including other chemistry courses, health professions, life, earth, and environmental sciences. In addition, the problems being studied also are found in K-12 education, making this research relevant to pre-college science education.

The Chicago Transformation Teacher Institutes (CTTI)involves five institutions of higher education (University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, Illinois Institutes of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, and Northwestern University) and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). CTTI provides mathematics and science leadership development for the CPS High Schools through support of the district's High School Transformation Project (HSTP) by expanding the school-university partnership. This project will develop teams of mathematics and science teacher-leaders in twenty high schools, chosen on the basis of an application procedure to determine school readiness and administrative support. The key outcome of the project within schools will be teacher-led work in the selection, refinement, and implementation of rigorous 12th-grade capstone and AP curricula. In addition, teacher leaders will have new competencies to coordinate curricula across grades 9-10-11.

The CTTI is organized from a theoretically-focused and research-based logic model of school change, based on the idea that school capacity to carry out and sustain change requires specific inputs, including the teacher content knowledge and leadership skills that CTTI will provide to the teachers. This model describes how school capacity, with its dimensions of in-school collaboration, teacher reflection, and instructional development, directly affect both teacher practice and student outcomes. The faculty from the Universities will learn from the CPS teachers how to recruit, retain and support students from the schools.

The CTTI teacher program develops leaders through three different experiences: (1) recruitment and initiation of cohorts of teachers; (2) courses in interdisciplinary content and educational research (3) workshops on linking content knowledge to reform curricula and school leadership. These will be given to 80 math and 80 science teachers over four CTTI cohorts, producing robust teacher-leaders teams in 20 schools. Teachers are in one of three tracks: mathematics (80 teachers), physical science (40 teachers), or life and environmental science (40 teachers). The CTTI's specific focus on teacher content knowledge and the application of that knowledge to teaching and school leadership is enhanced by its connection to multiple universities that are themselves at the forefront of STEM research, as will be reflected in the content of the CTTI courses.

The project builds on a logic model that links program activities with teacher and student outcomes. The research program will coordinate with other district- and university-based studies of school reform, making use of extensive data already available in CPS, the HSTP, and the classrooms. A separate evaluation of the CTTI will include observations of teacher change and specific links to large assessment and accountability measures already in place as part of the HSTP.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

This IUSE project seeks to develop a new inquiry-based undergraduate laboratory curriculum for General Organic and Biochemistry (GOB) courses at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The proposed courses are intended to prepare students for careers in healthcare professions by promoting critical thinking and connecting science to everyday life and human health. This goal will be accomplished through the creation or revision of 12 experiments that will utilize conceptual learning, as described by the MORE (Model-Observe-Reflect-Explain) framework. This approach encourages students to create a conceptual model in a pre-lab exercise, observe chemical phenomena in lab that confirm or refute their model, reflect upon their original model, and explain the chemical phenomena. The learning materials developed will be used by a diverse, urban commuter student body and should be transferrable to other institutions.

The key outcomes for this project will be twofold; (a) relevant lab procedures taught within the MORE framework and (b) associated training and support materials. Through formative and summative evaluation the investigators will analyze survey data of students related to their confidence and ability to understand course content objectives, as well as to the usefulness of an array of support materials and activities. Findings are expected to inform and broaden the knowledge base regarding how the contextualization of chemistry concepts aids student learning and the conditions that promote success for students. In turn, such results will help inform other institutions seeking to undertake similar efforts. Feedback from TAs (surveys and interviews) will also be used to adjust course implementation, to determine the role that teaching assistants play in delivering and implementing an inquiry-based curriculum, and to understand their influence on student learning. Dissemination will involve publication of manuscripts on the survey tool that has been created for this work and on the adaptation of the MORE pedagogy to the GOB sequence.

This project examines how high school science teachers develop practices of classroom assessment in order to make instructional decisions that optimize student learning in light of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In implementing the NGSS, teachers are faced with performance expectations that integrate cross-cutting concepts, practices and disciplinary core ideas in ways that depart from more traditional content-focused goals. The practices entail a range of science literacies including question generation, data representation, explanatory modeling, and communication among scientists and with the general public. To be successful, teachers must align these multi-dimensional student performance expectations with instruction that supports these and assessments that demonstrate students' progress. This project engages high school science teachers to develop assessments that cover the multiple dimensions of the performance expectations. Developing these assessments occurs as teachers focus on the nature of the evidence in student work that would indicate progress toward proficiency. Teachers work in learning communities so they can draw on each others' content and pedagogical expertise as they iteratively refine their assessment designs.

The project builds upon hypothetical learning trajectories for teachers, comprising five dimensions of teacher knowledge and practice: Assessment literacy and practices; views of student roles in assessment practices; participation within collaborative design teams; assessment design practices aligned with NGSS; and NGSS-aligned instructional practices. These dimensions organize a three-year professional development sequence for teachers from six different urban public high schools of a large and diverse school district. The location of this work also enables consideration of how teachers progressively address factors such as language learning, student economic backgrounds, and the needs of special education students. Throughout the sequence, teachers work within professional learning communities focused on iterative cycles of assessment design, implementation, reflection, and revision. The project applies mixed-methods to a variety of data sources, including teacher surveys, documentation of assessment design cycles, student work products, and observations of instructional practices. Analyses aim to further develop the hypothetical learning trajectories, obtain additional insights into teacher collaborative practices, and examine the relationship between changes in teacher assessment practices, their instructional methods, and student learning. Furthermore, engaging teachers in not only the collaborative design of assessments but also in the co-design of the professional development sequence reinforces this project's capacity to afford and foster local innovations that mitigate or resolve tensions extant in science education. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.

General Summary

Because of the siloed nature of formal educational curricula, students who opt out of STEM coursework, for whatever reason, lose the opportunity to engage with the domain of science almost entirely, thereby closing the door to the STEM workforce pipeline. This disproportionately impacts students of color and women. This project advances an alliance that consists of a consortium of community-engaged partners, including university and k-12 educational agencies, community colleges, community organizations, cultural institutions and local businesses. The project built around this alliance will leverage interdisciplinary spaces in the curriculum, particularly the humanities and social sciences, across academic levels, as a forum for integrating and applying STEM to bear on the practical, social, economic and political issues of modern life. The PIs establish a physical Community STEM Center as an anchoring institution for STEM engagement. This Center will be situated within the community that the alliance serves, bringing STEM opportunities and engagement to students instead of asking them to come where STEM education is currently provided. The activities enacted through the Community STEM Center will focus on enduring problems experienced by the communities, where students, community residents, teachers, and experts from higher education, industry and other community-based entities can come together to work on understanding them and developing evidenced centered advocacy as a means for addressing them. To facilitate the work at the Community STEM Center, the project creates a Community Ambassadors Program (CAP), leveraging participation across alliance members in partnership with the community. This Design and Development Launch Pilot will cultivate the necessary knowledgebase to develop a scalable model for implementation across diverse urban communities.

Technical Summary

This Design and Development Launch Pilot focuses on shifting the narrative of STEM education away from a solitary focus on formalized educational experiences and targets STEM content. This project develops and facilitates a parallel set of activities designed to engage under-represented students in learning how and why STEM is relevant to their lives, and approached through new and non-traditional educational dimensions. The five main objectives of this proposed pilot are to: (1) Develop a pilot alliance of community-engaged partners, including university and k-12 educational agencies, community colleges, community organizations, cultural institutions and industry;(2)Establish a physical Community STEM Advocacy Center as an anchoring institution for change embedded within the community that the pilot alliance serves; (3) Leverage interdisciplinary spaces in curricula, across academic levels, particularly the humanities and social sciences, as a forum for integrating and applying STEM to bear on the practical, social, economic and political issues of modern life; (4) Create a Community Ambassadors Program (CAP), leveraging participation across higher education pilot alliance members in partnership with the community; and (5)Conduct an evaluation of project initiatives and research regarding the usability and feasibility of a systemic approach to developing community-based, interdisciplinary pathways to broaden STEM participation pathways. Efforts to examine the impact of this community-based, interdisciplinary approach concentrates on the proximal outcomes related to STEM interest, self-efficacy and identity. Data will be collected in pre/post format across our three constituent samples: 1) Community STEM Advocacy Center participants; 2) k-12 students; and, 3) postsecondary students. Analysis of data will be conducted through MANCOVAs to account for potential co-variation among construct scores. Qualitative data will also be collected to contextualize findings and enable the development of a rich case study. At least two observations will be conducted in the Community STEM Advocacy Center and the two classroom implementations to document engagement, participant interactions and level of STEM content.

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Over its five-year duration, the project will fund both two-year and four-year scholarships to 35 students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in chemistry and biochemistry. The project will provide Scholars with access to new activities including: 1) A three-day internship immersion workshop; 2) Student Success workshops through University's Academic Center for Excellence; and 3) A Professional Presence course taught at the College of Business. Peer Success Coaches from chemistry and biochemistry programs will provide Scholars with mentoring that can help them tackle both professional and personal challenges. The University of Illinois at Chicago is a public, urban, land-grant institution and a federally-designated Hispanic-serving institution, so the results from this work will have wide applicability in understanding the support of STEM students. As part of the broader impacts, the project will serve as a pilot to evaluate proposed activities and their impact on developing undergraduate competencies and academic success in a Research 1 Institution. The project will also contribute to the science education community by evaluating effective strategies for supporting low-income talented students at different stages of their undergraduate careers at Research 1 Institutions.

The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The specific aim of the project is to evaluate if activities aimed at growing intra- and interpersonal competencies can help support and retain undergraduate students within STEM programs of study. The project aims to determine if an internship immersion workshop, a student-success workshop series, and a professional presence course can help strengthen self-efficacy and collaboration, thus improving students' academic outcomes. It is predicted that the Scholars who complete the curricular and co-curricular activities will have higher grade point averages in their majors, as well as higher rates of degree completion and a shorter time-to-degree than their peers. An independent evaluator will study project documentation and internal assessment to address if the project has achieved benchmarked process activities and if the project has used resources and expertise to support the Scholars as STEM majors. Results from this project will be disseminated through a dedicated webpage, publications in peer-reviewed articles, and presentations at symposia, workshops, and seminars. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Abstract The mission of the proposed program is to develop a lasting, robust institutional training program for highly talented underrepresented minority (URM) students to pursue careers in biomedical research. Our program builds on the existing partnership between Malcolm X College (MXC), a community college in Chicago IL, and University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the largest, public, Research I University in the region. The program is built upon the idea that a training program, if it is to be successful in serving associated students, must also change the students? undergraduate experience, the faculty, and the institutions involved. Hence, we have three specific aims: (1) recruiting and supporting trainees, (2) engaging in faculty development to enhance inclusion, and (3) institutional transformation at multiple levels. Weaving through these three aims is a consistent focus on how the students and their communities are impacted by health disparities, with particular attention paid to cancer research, but also incorporating methodology and themes applicable to a variety of STEM-related fields. Activities associated with Aim 1 include completion of introductory science courses at MXC, engagement with admission transfer advisors before and after transfer to UIC, participation in UIC workshops on research methods, ethics, and culture of science, participation in summer research experiences with UIC mentors, and presentation of results at local and national conferences. Activities associated with Aim 2 include focus on cancer research in introductory courses and structured research experiences for students, and participation in annual mentoring workshops and expanding initiatives that address cancer disparities in a laboratory setting. Finally, activities associated with Aim 3 include development of research career advising at MXC, advising about the B2B training program and biomedical research opportunities, and monitoring progress of our program. We hypothesize that a program focused on questions of health disparities and the voices of the trainees and their communities, can support trainees in their development as biomedical researchers, change how instructors and mentors approach the teaching and training in science, and develop robust activities at the institutional level that can make research, health care, and education more inclusive.

This project aims to serve the national interest by implementing evidenced-based teaching and inclusion practices throughout the undergraduate curriculum at a public research university with a diverse student body. This works to address the important problem of how change at the individual course or faculty level is insufficient to drive institutional transformation. Such transformation will be done through a multi-year effort that provides for faculty and curriculum development work that engages multiple faculty and covers all courses, including lecture and laboratory instruction in general, analytical, inorganic, physical chemistry, and biochemistry. Faculty will engage in multiple iterations of course revision using reflective practices that will provide data that characterizes the targeted outcomes of their revision work and, then, support iterative change. This will include a consistent emphasis on incorporating examples from current research and societal problems, to allow courses to improve how they teach students how to apply their knowledge to contemporary problems. The significance of this work lies in its potential to answer the important problem of knowing how to support change at the institutional level with efforts that engage curriculum-wide work by multiple faculty.

The project builds on methods of design-based research, applied at the level of faculty development, individual courses, and throughout the entire department. Curricular reform will include components of the use of big ideas shared throughout the curriculum, linked also to applications in society and current research, specific science practices, and the incorporation of evidence-based instructional practices to support student knowledge and skill growth over time. Faculty development work includes components of analyzing chemistry teaching and learning, planning for instruction, reflecting on instructional practice, and collaborative action research investigation of the curriculum development. The research on the program will contribute to deepening understanding of how individual faculty and course change can occur and how this affects institutional transformation. The work will be disseminated through sharable tools that are used within the faculty and curriculum development community; individual reports in the education literature about course changes, and reports in the research literature that advance understanding of the intersecting activities of curriculum and faculty development and change at the institutional level.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.